Roundabout should inspire 'fear in your heart'

It's no secret that I've been critical of the counterproductive roundabout that apparently will be built in downtown Glens Falls.

Post-Star managing editor Ken Tingley derided critics of the project as opponents of progress. An editorial lectured incoming Mayor Roy Akins not to waste his time re-visiting the boondoggle. Imagine, an elected official thoroughly examining a project that would spend millions of taxpayer dollars and have major ramifications for the city's central business district. And he's denounced by the most powerful media outlet in the region for this act of fiscal responsibility?

The daily is not merely content to support the project. They go much further, mocking those who dare question their omniscence. But this is typical of the new Post-Star in the 21st century, a pale, dumbed-down shadow of a once excellent regional paper.

I've never accepted the contention of some that a roundabout would be the magic bullet that singlehandedly transforms downtown Glens Falls. This is only the latest in a series of once-a-decade magic bullets from one-way traffic (in the 1950s), to the disastrous urban renewal (1960s), to the building of the Civic Center (1970s), to the Civic Center Plaza (1980s), to the return of two-way traffic (in the 1990s). None of those magic bullets transformed Glens Falls; though all of them cost money and some made things worse, just like the roundabout will.

In fact, the roundabout does exactly the opposite of what downtown Glens Falls needs. The central business district needs to be made more friendly to pedestrians, as was done in downtown Saratoga. This will make it a more desirable place to stop and visit. The roundabout will only make downtown Glens Falls a more desirable place to NOT stop (because they won't have to) and NOT visit (because it'll be even more hostile to pedestrians).

One of the biggest reasons I've opposed the roundabout is that I have yet to hear a real answer to a single critical question: how is someone supposed to cross the street if car traffic in a roundabout never stops?

Apparently, I'm not the only one with this concern as a woman from Queensbury posed the same question to the Answers Please section of The Post-Star on Saturday.

The closest thing to a concrete answer was a reference to a state Department of Transportation book which urged pedestrians to "never cross to the central island."

This is confusing since defenders of the roundabout (when they actually bother to answer questions about foot traffic) have said that this central island is precisely what makes roundabouts such a utopia for walkers.

Additionally, the paper's response urged pedestrians to "have some fear in [their] heart."

Whew, that makes me feel better!

That one of the roundabout's most rabid supporters can not even come up with a concrete answer to my simple question only reinforces my opposition to this stupidity.